The present invention is directed to a diverter/singulator for closures in a closure feed system. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a diverter/singulator for a closure feed system for use in a form, fill, and seal packaging machine, in which closures are mounted to packages.
Many containers such as cartons are formed with integral spouts. For example, many known gable-top cartons feature resealable spouts mounted to one of the gable panels to facilitate dispensing contents from the carton and resealing the carton after use.
Packaging machines must mount spouts to the cartons at some point during their forming, filling, and sealing processes. To this end, packaging machines often include applicator stations, at which a spout is dispensed from a feed system, directed or diverted to an applicator and moved into contact with a carton. The applicator typically includes a sealing device, such as an ultrasonic sealing or welding head, which moves into contact with the carton while an accompanying closure rests on an anvil that also is moved into contact with the carton. Energy transmitted from the sealing device into the carton material above the spout seals the spout to the carton.
Because many modern packaging machines operate at high speeds (some at speeds up to about 14,000 packages per hour), one concern is that the spouts or closures must be dispensed at a rate commensurate with the overall speed of the packaging machine, while precisely and accurately dispensing closures for proper positioning within the applicator. Known dispensing arrangements may be subject to frequent clogs or bottlenecks in their spout feed lines, slowing the machines or requiring that they be shut down entirely in order to free obstructions. In addition, such high-speed machines often include parallel trains or lines of form, fill and seal stations. That is, the machines include two forming stations, two filling stations and two sealing stations that are side-by-side within the machine enclosure and operate in parallel. This is referred to as a dual-train form, fill and seal packaging machine.
Prior art closure feed systems generally rely on gravity, allowing spouts to fall through a single chute on to a reciprocating anvil in the applicator station. Shingling, in which the thin flanges surrounding a spout overlap one another and cause skewing, frequently cause jamming within such closure feed system, by allowing more than one closure to drop into position on the anvil. In addition, such systems require a diverter to direct or divert closures from a common supply to the individual reciprocating anvils.
United States patent application publication No. U.S. 2002/0073648 A1 (the '648 publication), now U.S. Pat. No. 6,807,792 assigned to the assignee of the present invention, attempts to address the jamming problems caused by closure shingling with closure feed systems that includes a singulator with upper and lower reciprocating members, or plungers. The plungers reciprocate in an opposing manner to one another, so that when the upper plunger is retracted, the lower plunger is extended, and when the upper plunger is extended, the lower plunger is retracted. The plungers prevent closure shingling by providing physical barriers between closures in the feed system queue. Though this system prevents the blockages caused by closure shingling, it nevertheless requires a separate system for each of the form, fill and seal trains. Moreover, additional space is required to house the reciprocating plungers, the other components for each of the singulators.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a simple closure feed system that prevents closure jamming and bottlenecks. Desirably, such a closure feed system dispenses a single closure at a time for receipt by a closure applicator. More desirably, such a system requires little space and a minimum of mechanical parts. Most desirably, such a system singulates the closures or spouts by alternately sliding spouts from a common chute into two separate chutes to accomplish diverting the closures (to the two trains of the dual train form, fill and seal machine) in a unit common with the singulating function.